Iyaz Akhtar joins us to look a little closer at what Apple Watchkit tells us about the Apple Watch, get a report on the Jolla Tablet from Slush in Helsinki, and find out why zero-rating data doesn’t seem to bother Australians.
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Show Notes
Today’s guest: Iyaz Akhtar of cnet.com and the GFQ Network
Headlines:
MacRumors passes along the Financial Times story that Apple will put the Beats app into iOS making it a default app on every iPhone and iPad starting early next year, possibly as early as March. FT’s sources indicate Beat swill remain a paid subscription service but may get rebranded under iTunes.
The Next Web reports Samsung is adding curated video to its Milk music streaming service. Milk Video brings selected clips from the likes of Vevo, Funny or Die, Vice and more. You can’t add video, but you can follow certain providers and if you register, you can swipe away videos you don’t like so the system learns your preferences. You can download Milk from the Google Play store but it only works on Samsung Galaxy devices.
That’s right the Jolla tablet soared past its $380,000 crowdfunding goal in a couple hours and is on its way to a million. Other specs on the 8-inch tablet include a 2048×1536 display, 1.8GHz quad-core Intel processor, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of storage and five-megapixel camera. Jolla expects to start shipping in Q2 2015. It started at $189 on indiegogo but is now $204.
TechCrunch reports BitTorrent announced it will move its Sync cloud storage product out of beta in early 2015 as Sync 2.0. Free users will get an upgraded interface, syncing and apps. A new Pro tier will be added for $40 a year that gives users access to very large folders, control of file permissions and ownership, automatic sync and priority tech support. After Sync 2.0 launches, BitTorrent plans a mobile app to make it easy to send and receive large files.
Engadget reports Nielsen will begin tracking viewership of streaming video services Amazon and Netflix next month. The system identifies shows by their audio. The data could prove useful for companies who sell shows to Netflix and Amazon. Neither company shares viewership data, which makes it hard to know how valuable any particular show might be to the companies.
Netflix officially announced today that it will launch in Australia and New Zealand in March 2015. CNET reports a price hasn’t been set yet, but Australians will be able to sign up for a free one-month trial, then chose from three pricing plans. New Zealanders and Australians can sign up now for updates at https://www.netflix.com/global
And Engdaget reports on China’s Meizu unveiling the highest screen resolution in the current smartphone market in its new MX4 Pro. The followup to the MX4 has a 5.5-inch 2560 x 1536 resolution which they call 2K-Plus. The phone also has a fingerprint reader called mTouch and high-fiedlity audio that Meizu called ‘retina sound’ which might be bad for your eyes if literal. What it really means is a 32-bit digital audio converter from ESS and a TI OPA1612 amp. It comes to China December 6th for CN¥2,499 ($410) at 16GB on up to ¥3,099 ($510) for the 64 GB.
Gigaom reports that British telecommunications regulator Ofcom will free up spectrum in the 700MHz range for mobile broadband use by the start of 2022. That range of spectrum is used for 4G/LTE in the U.S. and Asia. In the UK free-to-view digital TV and wireless broadcast microphones currently use the 700MHz band.
News From You:
Hurmoth submitted the Ars Technica report that the US Senate only got 58 of the 60 votes it needed to pas the USA Freedom Act which would have placed limits on NSA surveillance. Bulk phone surveillance would have ended and data would have remained with phone companies and only searched by request with specific terms. It would have also added a privacy advocate to the secret FISA Court. The bill was supported by several cicil liberties groups and law enforcement agencies including Director of the NSA James Clapper.
ShamelessTub passed along a BBC report about Tony and Jan Jenkinson, who who had a bad experience in a hotel in Blackpool, England. The elderly couple posted a negative review about The Broadway Hotel on TripAdvisor. The hotel then charged the couple £100 on their credit card for the bad review, per hotel policy, which Mrs. Jenkinson didn’t read, because she wasn’t wearing her glasses. The UK Trading Standards Council is investigating whether the hotel is in violation of trading practice regulations.
In the latest episode of The Wire ancrod2 pointed out the Ars Technica article that Baltimore natural PO-lice withdrew evidence from a court case against a 16-year-old robbery suspect rather than reveal how information leading to an arrest was obtained. Baltimore Circuit Judge Barry G. Williams asked Detective John L. Haley how police located the suspect’s phone. Detective McNulty – I mean Haley cited a non-disclosure agreement prevent ed him from revealing the information. Jude Williams said “ “You don’t have a nondisclosure agreement with the court!” according to the Baltimore Sun. Prosecution withdrew the phone and a gun from evidence but intend to continue the case. One can imagine many bottles of Jameson’s were smashed by the railroad tracks that night.
starfuryzeta passed along an Engadget report that Uber is now investigating itself for violations of its own privacy policy. Apparently Uber’s New York general manager Josh Mohrer used Uber’s so-called “God View” tool to track the movements of Buzzfeed reporter Johana [Boo-YIN] Bhuiyan in two instances: one in order to meet the reporter for an interview and a second time to use as an example in an email meant to answer questions related to a story on Uber competitor Lyft. The problem is the reporter did NOT give Mohrer permission in either instance. Uber’s privacy policy states that employees at all levels are prohibited from accessing rider or driver data, unless it is for a limited set of “legitimate business purposes” including facilitating payments, monitoring fraud, and troubleshooting.
In addition, entrepreneur Peter Sims told Reuters he considered suing Uber after his location was broadcast to a room at an Uber launch party without his permission.
Discussion Section: Apple watch
http://www.theverge.com/2014/11/18/7243085/most-important-apple-watchkit-discoveries
http://thenextweb.com/apple/2014/11/18/meet-apples-new-font-designed-watch/
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2014/11/18Developers-Start-Designing-Apps-for-Apple-Watch.html
https://developer.apple.com/watchkit/#agreement
https://gigaom.com/2014/11/19/how-good-wearable-design-can-actually-reduce-tech-distractions/
Pick of the Day: One Tab via Bill Burlingame
I’m obsessive about browser tabs. I keep many tabs open in several instances of Chrome all the time and I like to have them in a particular order. I have found the Recent Tabs selection in Chrome to be unreliable. Several weeks ago, Allyn Malventano of PC Perspective gave this as his tip. It’s a Chrome extension called One Tab. I have been using One Tab since then.
Bill Burlingame
Huntsville, AL
Thursday’s guest: Jill Duffy, writer and senior analyst at pcmag.com
